


no choice

by ohyondermemphis



Series: A 90s Mixtape [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: A 90s Mixtape, F/M, Female Harry Potter, Growing Up Together @ Wools, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Tom Riddle Born In Harry’s Timeline, first year
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:27:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28208304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohyondermemphis/pseuds/ohyondermemphis
Summary: “It is Magic’s gift. The bond cannot be broken.”Every book he’s managed to read, every obscure reference, everything in the Hogwarts library has told him this. He hasn’t once believed it until now
Relationships: Harry Potter/Tom Riddle
Series: A 90s Mixtape [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1921390
Comments: 20
Kudos: 132





	no choice

**Author's Note:**

> Because. A rambling range of stories, this being the fourth. 
> 
> _I won't roll my bones for every little girl who gets on down._
> 
> _Snakedriver / the jesus and mary chain_

On the last day of their first year at Hogwarts, he corners Harry down by the lake.

He’d been in the library that morning, meticulously checking that all the books he borrowed throughout the year were returned, picking up a few of the pamphlets for the book stores he’d be able to sneak to once they were back in London. 

Draco had offered for him to come stay a few weeks at his manor but even with the Malfoy library dangling in front of him he didn’t think he could stomach having to deal with the blond for a whole week. 

Rabastan and Bella had finally caught up with him by the time the Great Hall had started the breakfast spread and Bella received the books from the Black family library to loan him during summer, he wanted to keep sharp. 

Harry’s coming in just as he’s finishing up. They catch eyes for a second or two, the same blink and miss it routine they’ve had all school year. Granger seems to be the only one that notices, but he’s quick to brush her off, she’s become a rather ingenious thorn in his side this year and he does his best to clear away from her. They don’t need that kind of attention. 

He half way listens to Rabastan and Bella bicker, an oddly comforting sound that he’s become accustomed to over this year. Weasley and Longbottom join the Gryffindor table, tumbled from bed, uniforms at the dodgiest minimum. They comes from magic but their lazy with it, unappreciative of the complexity, the beauty. It rankles under his skin. 

He doesn’t look at Harry again. He passes the day slowly, going to all his usual haunts, he finally shakes his other two Slytherins only to be found by the only other person he’s been trying to avoid. 

“Tom, a word please.” Dumbledore appears from nowhere just about the time Tom turns down the last corridor of the seventh floor. Barnabas seems to laugh at him as they pass by the room he’s treasured all year to the sunlit windows that give a breathtaking view of the massive forbidden forest. 

“You’re going back to Wool’s as well? Harry only vouched for herself this morning.” The idea of his needling rankled only slightly less now that he was absolutely certain she’d be going back with him, he told himself he didn’t care whether she shacked up with Granger this summer, he’d been offered as well. But the fissure of relief calms him as much as it sours his mood. 

“Yea, sir. Back to the orphanage.” He throws the dig in just to see the wince that worries the man’s face. He had spoken to Dumbledore during Yule, trying to see if there was a chance they could possibly stay at the school year round. That was not possible, Dumbledore had definitively told him all those months ago. Tom had hated him at that moment, born in magic, surrounded by it daily, it's gift never taken away from him. 

They would be practically muggles until they could come back home to Hogwarts. 

“Tom, you’ve had a wonderful year, top marks, leaps and bounds above your year mates.” He bites the inside of his cheek, he won’t preen in front of Dumbledore. That’s the line. He nods his head, though, appreciative and fully understanding that he is all of what Dumbledore believes him to be. 

“Harry asked me this year if the bond could be broken.” His nails dig into the meaty flesh of his palm, his eyes suddenly, comprehendingly, wholly on Dumbledore. “I will tell you what I have told her.” Dumbledore peers down at him, and Tom feels like he’s cataloguing every insignificance, every cruel laugh, every hateful thing he’s done, not only since he started Hogwarts, but before that, his whole life. 

“It is Magic’s gift. The bond cannot be broken.” Every book he’s managed to read, every obscure reference, everything in the Hogwarts library has told him this. He hasn’t once believed it until now. 

“You are destined, Tom, for magic, for Harry. Do not throw away this gift.” Dumbledore puts one hand on his shoulder, a fatherly thing to do and Tom looks away from him, out the open window, away from those all seeing eyes. He breathes slow, calming breaths, he does not fidget under Dumbledore’s heavy hand. He grips him one last time before he moves away, pulling a square bit of parchment out of his pocket. 

“This is an address you can reach me at with any questions you have. I’ve got a bit of traveling planned this summer but I promise to write back.” They didn’t get an owl that day at Diagon. Harry had fallen in love with a snowy white, delight in her eyes that she’d finally be able to afford something she wanted. Tom had been affected in ways he still didn’t want to look too closely at when their vaults had been revealed to them. A ring, a locket and a pile of gold that he could fit in his hands. All his line could afford him. 

He immediately thought about pawning the ring. A gold monstrosity, a rock that didn’t even look like a jewel. He’d hid it in his trunk until Christmas, when Harry had got him a gold chain for it, an enchantment wound in the metal to make it invisible to anyone but him. 

Her vault had been full, and when she turned excited eyes at him he couldn’t even muster a smile her way. She taken a handful, tried to buy him anything he wanted that day, he’d have none of it, not the money she’d inherited, not the smiles she showered on him. 

She didn’t end up buying the owl. 

After her gift of the necklace, they’d taken a turn around the lake, there was barely anyone there during the Yule hols, and he’d mastered the notice-me-not charm months ago. Lingering outside even though it was freezing, he’d led her up to the owlery where a large chunk of his inheritance sat cooing at her. 

She kissed his cheek that day. 

Hedwig would be staying here over the summer, no way they could have her at Wool’s, where Cole would very likely have her for dinner. He reads the address on the paper, in Dumbledore’s elegant scrawl, he’d be able to write a letter, send it through the mail. 

He puts the paper in his pocket. He’s got time to think about it. 

He’s got bigger things on his mind right now. 

“Excuse me, sir. I’ve got to get packing for tomorrow.” He’d already packed everythng, and then had put the enchantment on his trunk and anything else that might have found it’s way to him in the beaten backpack he’d brought with him. 

Dumbledore lets him go with little more than an easy smile and another clap on the back, a fruitless wish for a well summer. He rolls his eyes once his back is turned, heading out of the castle, listening to another heart’s beat in his veins. 

He finds her at the lake, bare legs and a radio. Surprisingly alone. She’s usually got Granger or Weasley hanging on her, sometimes a stray Hufflepuff, he’s even known Regulus to share a table at the library with her. Her easiness is something he could never have, the amount of accessibility she exudes makes his skin crawl. She’s the only one he’s ever let within arms reach. 

“Dumbledore managed to find me.” She jumps at his words and he smirks a little as she flails upright, she holds her hand to his chest and her eyes narrow as he looks down at her. “No thanks to you, I suppose.” Her lips twitch, a smugness that lingers between them. She pulls the blanket under her straighter, making a place for him. He looks around first, his wand placing charms around them in the next breath. She says nothing about this careful secrecy, hasn’t since he got her to agree to it before the train. 

He feels lazy in the sun and manages to lean on one elbow, laid out, bracketing her on the blanket. 

She sits up, legs cross crossed and reaches into her bag to hand him an apple. “Going to miss the food, for sure.” He tips his head at that, he’s just only got used to eating three meals a day himself. 

She picks at the grass along the edge while he devours the fruit. 

“He’s been asking about you.” Dumbledore taught them both defense, and Tom has often seen Harry lingering behind after class, warm and open. Dumbledore had known her parents. He couldn’t fault her for that. He’d looked his up as soon as it was available for him to do so, the faded red paper of Gringotts a touchstone he could only push forward. 

There’s was a very different backstory. But the end had been the same. Another tie to bind. 

He watches her fidgeting closely. He finally breaks the silence. “He was sure to tell me the same thing he told you.”

“I figured he would.” She lets out a sigh, hunching over and ripping the long blade of grass in her hand to pieces. The sunlight hides through the trees overhead and shadows cling between them. Tom tosses his apple into the lake, where it bobs for a moment or two before jerking below the murky water. She keeps her eyes on the lake. 

“What made you ask?” He asks quiet and low, and somewhere inside it throbbed like a bruise. He didn’t expect that from her, she never seemed to mind him the way he did her. He was never a chain to break like she was, a weight he couldn’t crawl out of. She looks at him finally, pity in her bright, lovely eyes. 

“Tom. I know you, you never would have asked yourself.” He rolls his eyes away from her, vaguely insulted. One side of his mouth tips up and he looks at her, long legs stretched out and reclining on his both elbows. 

“What makes you think I didn’t already know?” She huffs out an annoyed sigh before reaching out to lay an open palm on his chest. He startled at the contact, at the serious look in her eyes. 

“I’m right here, Tom Riddle.” He looks up at her and her hair’s down for once, and it tickles the side of his face where she’s leaned over him and for one heart stopping moment he thinks -

“I know you better than you know yourself.” His jaw tightens and he scrambles back away from her, never feeling quite as trapped in his life. She lingers over the spot empty of him now, and her open hand turns into a clenched fist. 

Her wand is in her other, quick as a flash. 

“ _Animamea”_ It seems as if she hisses the spell at him and he pulls his wand, pointing it at her with mounting terror. But he feels nothing, beyond the frantic beat of his own heart. 

“What did you do?” He growls out at her, he inches forward, both moving slowly from knees to feet, coming closer. 

“Can’t you see it?” Her words have an ugly tint of desperation to them, and she pointedly moves her wand back and away from him. 

And even as he keeps his trained on her, he can see the shimmery haze between them turn brighter. A starry wonder. 

“Magic marked us, Tom. Equal. Bound. You would curse her gift?” Her eyes glow as the spell peaks, the swirls of condensed nebula twining around them, tendrils reaching around to tie them. 

Tom swings his arm down, cutting her spell in half. _I would curse anything that would have me bound and tethered._ He wants to scream at her, shake loose this far reaching fantasy of the two of them. Can’t she feel it herself? How could she stand it. He tightens the reins of his anger, pushing it into something manageable, something covered. 

She bites her lip, no sound, and crosses her arms, taking her eyes off of him and looking back across the massive expanse of lake. Dismissing him so easily. 

“We’ll meet as agreed, at the train station in London.” Tom nods, curt and still angry, turning on his heels and hating himself as much as her. 

-

The animosity so glaringly obvious on that last day at Hogwarts is nowhere to be found at Wools. 

They only have each other here and they’ve learned to wield their closeness like a weapon. They fight off an upper year the first week back, a black eye for their troubles a piece, but thankfully Harry’s teeth went quite a good way through and Tom’s punches landed accurately. No one’s managed to corner them since. 

Mary Margeret manages to keep them out of trouble during the week, but the long summer months stretch out before them. Somehow Tom ends up sneaking them out most weekends, and Harry thinks his hands have become a little too slick, a little too fast but it’s not in her to care very much when they can roam like this. 

Halfway through the summer, bored with movies and book shops, she talks him into going to the zoo. 

They were supposed to go with the other kiddies at Wools, right before they started day school but Cole cut them right out of that trip, and Harry, hatred burning in her eyes for Cole and Tom’s smart mouth, had been longing to go over since. 

They board the train, and the crowd keeps them standing near the door and Harry notices for the first time she can see the top of Tom’s head. 

Someone pushes past Tom to exit and he glares, only as dangerous as a muggle now without his wand. His arm reaches out to push them over the gap, and Harry sighs internall. Still pretty dangerous then. Just as the tips of his fingers sink into the man’s back, Harry has a firm grip around his wrist, jerking his hand back. 

The man turns as he trips onto the platform. 

“Sorry, my little brother doesn’t get out much.” She turns a cheeky smile to Tom, letting go of his wrist to wrap an arm around his shoulders. He sputters in rage beside her just as the door closes. 

The jab to her ribs is worth it. 

He won’t talk to her again until they get to the zoo and his anger vanishes as they ramble through each exhibit. His voice is a low, steady thrum beside her, talking constantly, quietly about the animals they’re seeing. 

It’s nice. 

There’s a crowd at the penguins and he pulls her close to the glass once a crack breaks through the throng of people. Five fingers entwined with her own, loose and it makes the beat of the heart feel magnified in her throat. 

He doesn’t let go of her even as they continue on. 

They take a break from the oppressive heat in the snake den. The cool is dark and quiet, and more people scuttle out than in, the honking horn of the tram coming around again. 

She takes a seat on a bench, she’s never really seen snakes before this close. Urban London wasn’t exactly a wealth of wildlife. She’d caught herself looking curiously at the forbidden forest last year, but Hermione didn’t seem inclined for adventure of the outdoorsy kind and she hasn’t the courage to ask Tom.

She just knew he’d be the same this year. She watches him walk around the empty room until he comes to sit beside her, stretching his long legs out in front of him. 

“Slytherin was a parselmouth.” He says quietly, barely above the low buzz of the air conditioner. His face furrows in thought and he’s up and standing just as quick as he sat down, moving to the large glass enclosure in the back of the room. Harry follows him quickly, like a puppet with strings. 

” _Hello there._ ” He runs his finger along the glass and the triangular head of a beautiful, diamond patterned snake raises up to meet his eyes. 

“ _What a strange little hatchling you are.”_ Harry’s eyes felt like they were bulging, and she frantically looks between both snake and boy. She could understand them! She grips Tom by the bare arm, amazed. She glances to the gold plaque that hangs beside her glass cage, that says it’s a adder, _Vipera berus_. 

The snake’s body ripples in movement and she swings her head to Harry. ” _He must eat, your mate. You must be strong.”_ Harry lets out a surprised laugh and completely shocks herself by hissing, “ _Thank you._ ”

Tom swings wild eyes up to meet her, half a grin on his face and Harry feels reckless in that crazy, heart stopping moment (they can talk to snakes!). She wants … she wants … and before she can figure it out herself he’s already turned away, hissing to the other snakes. 

**Author's Note:**

> How y’all feeling on this one? I’m so ready to get to the heart of this I can’t stand it. 
> 
> As always - thank you for reading! I love comments and questions, and you can find me on tumblr - ohyondermemphis


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